Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, last year’s Democratic nominee for vice president, took another step back onto the national political stage on Friday when he hosted a town hall in front of a friendly audience in Des Moines, the latest in a series of appearances outside his home state.
During roughly an hour on the stage of a high school auditorium, Mr. Walz expressed sadness over Democrats’ struggles with rural and working-class voters, blasted President Trump’s cuts to the federal government and told the crowd that Democrats needed to rethink how they campaigned and governed.
“Millions of people stayed home because they didn’t think there was any difference between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris and myself on the ticket,” Mr. Walz said at the event, which was organized by the Iowa Democratic Party. “We need to acknowledge that. I think one of the reasons is that when Democrats have been in power, we’ve been timid about passing things that make a difference.”
The trip to Iowa was the latest sign that Mr. Walz, who was not widely known outside Minnesota before joining Ms. Harris’s ticket, might be contemplating a run for the presidency in 2028. Mr. Walz spoke last week to a Democratic Party gathering in Montana and was scheduled to hold another town hall in Nebraska, the sorts of appearances that can foster good will among party leaders and help a potential candidate gauge the mood of the electorate. Future trips to Ohio and Wisconsin are in the works.
Mr. Walz also spoke recently at the South by Southwest Conference and Festivals and expressed openness to running for president in an interview with The New Yorker. That posture contrasts with the relatively low profile Mr. Walz kept in the first months after he and Ms. Harris lost every battleground state to Mr. Trump.
Before Mr. Walz makes any decision about 2028, he must likely choose whether to seek a third term as governor of Minnesota next year. The Democratic field in Minnesota has been frozen as would-be candidates wait for Mr. Walz to decide. He has already ruled out running next year for the seat that Senator Tina Smith, a Democrat, will be leaving at the end of her term.